A brief, two paragraph statement [PDF] by the private attorney of Alaska’s very-soon-to-be-former Gov. Sarah Palin was posted on the governor’s official public state website on Monday.
Attributed to “THOMAS VAN FLEIN — Personal Attorney for Governor Palin,” the statement posted to the Governor’s officially run state website at www.gov.state.ak.us decries the latest ethics complaint filed against Palin — alleging the improper disclosure of gifts and the receipt of free services — as an abuse of the state Ethics Act.
That the official state website would be used to publicize the private response of Palin on Monday to another ethics charge is somewhat ironical, given Tuesday’s leak of a preliminary independent report [PDF] from a state ethics commission investigator finding “probable cause” that Palin’s “official” legal defense fund violated the Ethics Act in that it made use of her “official position for personal gain.”
Citing Alaska Statute 39.52.120(a) which states that a “public officer may not use, or attempt to use, an official position for personal gain,” the state’s independent investigator, Thomas M. Daniel notes that “personal gain” is defined by law as “a benefit to a person’s or immediate family member’s personal interest or financial interest.”
Does the use of the state’s website to publicize Palin’s personal attorney’s response to an official ethics complaint constitute the use of “an official position for personal gain”? Was the complainant allowed to post her attorney’s response to the complaint, or to Palin’s personal response to it, on the official Alaska state website? Of course not.
Perhaps one more ethics complaint needs to be filed in Alaska before Palin quits her job as Governor this weekend.
We came across Monday’s publicly posted private response via a Monday night tweet on Palin’s personal Twitter page which linked to it:
7:23 PM Jul 20th from web
But, as still more irony would have it, Palin and/or her attorney may have also committed a legally actionable act of defamation in their response to the leak of yesterday’s confidential “probable cause” finding….
In attorney Van Flein’s statement responding to the leak of the report, as posted on Palin’s Facebook page yesterday, he may have defamed the complainant, Alaska resident Kim Chatman, by declaring, as fact, some action of hers to have been “illegal.”
“All options are open in terms of legal remedies,” Van Flein threatened, in response to his apparent belief, as ABC News characterized it, that Chatman is the one who leaked the confidential preliminary report. “It is a clear violation of Alaska law that Mr. Daniel explicitly reviewed with Ms. Chatman prior to her illegal actions. We will be contacting the appropriate authorities for review and action.”
It’s unclear whether Van Flein was asserting that the alleged “illegal action” of Chatman was the leak of the preliminary report, as ABC implies, and, if so, what his evidence is for that. None is given. But he has very clearly stated, as a fact, that Chatman committed “illegal actions.”
That is, of course, what Palin, via Van Flein, had inaccurately alleged about Alaska blogger and radio host Shannyn Moore, after she discussed rumors of a coming “iceberg scandal” that might sink the U.S.S. Palin — as we reported here at the time — shortly after Palin announced she would be aborting her term as Governor to, apparently, become a celebrity community organizer.
Trouble is, neither Moore, nor anybody else to our knowledge, ever stated that the rumored “iceberg” investigation — believed to be into whether or not Palin misappropriated funds and/or materials and/or labor from the construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex for use in the construction of her Wasilla home on Lake Lucille, which was built during approximately the same period, as detailed last year by the Village Voice — was a “fact” (other than the general assertion that it was a fact that local Alaskans had been buzzing about those rumors for several weeks leading up to Palin’s surprise resignation announcement).
As Van Flein, who at the time described media reports of those allegations as “actionable,” wrote in his July 4th legal threat letter [PDF] in response:
So while neither Moore, nor any other media that we’re aware of, “claim[ed] as ‘fact'” that Palin was “under federal investigation,” Van Flein, on behalf of Palin, has now stated that a legal complainant, Kim Chatman, committed “illegal actions.”
Despite their widely reported threats and attempts at intimidation, as Moore and other local bloggers described it at the time, no lawsuits for “defamation” have yet been filed by the Palin team to date. But it certainly seems that Chatman — if, in fact, she did not leak the report, or break any other laws — might well have a very good case of “defamation” to file against Palin at this point.
Ban Flein and Palin are not reporting the truth in regards to the confidentiality issue of ethics complaints. The rules for filng ethics complaints against the governor of Alaska lack a confidentiality statement prohibiting the complainant from revealing the contents of the complaint. CelticDiva’sBlueOasis had a posting regarding this lie about a week or so ago.
Have been unable to find her post on that, Majii. Got an URL for me by chance? (Have sent her a query as well, asking same).
Majii –
Looks like one of these may be what you were referring to, as sent in reply from Celtic Diva:
Haven’t gotten to review them yet, but will later this evening…Thought they might be useful, however, for you or others.
She is so stoooooopid, that she will never see any contradictions and neither will her supporters. Gratefully, it is a shrinking group.
Our bigger problem, Brad, is the mainstream media that “catapults” the propaganda, her baseless claims to be a “victim” because she choose not to or cannot follow simple laws.
Tonight, AFT Trustee Kristin Cole and her att’y posted on Facebook their official statement. She blames Daniel, but also hits Kim:
“You know, we have witnessed time and again the blatant abuse of process when it comes to people filing these complaints and illegally discussing them and leaking them to the press- but this latest move further crosses the line and we are all reviewing action for the reputational harm caused by Ms. Chatman based upon the leak of Tom Daniel’s preliminary thinking on the matter – a product that may have ultimately been remarkably different and perhaps even dismissed. Where is the accountability for those who blatantly disregard the requirement to keep the issue confidential?”
http://tinyurl.com/mxaxaf
Hot Button
By Amanda Carpenter (Contact) | Thursday, July 23, 2009
More ethics claims
The Associated Press claims that outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be found guilty of violating her state’s ethics rules, citing a report leaked from the State Personnel Board on one of the 19 ethics complaints filed against her.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/23/hot-button-34613253/
Um … isn’t that unethical? ~laughing~ Almost seems that Palin has always had a problem with what’s unacceptable for others versus what’s acceptable for herself.
Spiro Palin is what happens when republican’s don’t use the morning after birth control pill and hope for the best!
Let that be a lesson for them all.
Not how the mainstream media has said virtually NOTHING, and if FOI #6 is right, this is not an “oversight”.
The created palin, a mythical figure on the national stage, just like they created joe the (fake) plumber – neither has any merit on their own.
We will continue to see this moron elevated as a national “lightning rod” for repug/neocon causes and it is all the mainstream media’s doing.
Our outrage should be focused on that.
And don’t kid yourself, if the criminal cabal behind dur chimpfurher can fraudulently hoist an AWOL abusive alcoholic/cocaine addict into the white house as a “war president”, they can find many ways to use this tool, including a white house bid.
From there, she’s just one stolen election away.
Sarah Palin is George W. Bush in a skirt: folksy, manipulatable, personable in a goofy sort of way. The fact that she used an official state website for private rebuttal – an abuse of power – is not surprising.
My song, Sunbathing in Siberia, on the web at XB Cold Fingers . com presents a sardonic look at how Palin, and the people who tell her what to say, what to think, and how to look at the world, view Global Warming.
Wow! She blows!
Dare I repeat what I said earlier?
A F-ing security problem waiting to happen.
“That was the talk from a lot of sources that I talked too”
Brad, do you have one source, just one source that is outside of the echo chamber of the Alaska bloggers ?
EdwardTeller July 3rd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I’ve updated my Oxdown diary:
Update: This just in my inbox, from a source connected sometimes to CNN:
“Here’s a quote I got from law enforcement here in Alaska yesterday afternoon regarding Palin “a criminal indictment is pending authorization.â€
Just one ?
I’m sorry but I can’t take you seriously everytime you keep quoting the same sources on this.
Who besides Edward Teller and his CNN buddy, or The Girl From Homer, or Devon, who besides these bloggers have you talked to ?
All I can tell ya, Mustaffah, is that The BRAD BLOG has been covering various goings on in Alaska long before there were “Alaska bloggers”.
That said, sources who wish to be identified are identified. Sources who do not wish to be identified, are not identified.
Hope that all puts you at ease, my friend.
I never expected anything better.
Just admit it Brad, you don’t have any sources in Alaska beyond Moore and her blogger buddies.
You didn’t vet the story and either did they.
I’ve been around these parts a lot longer than you my friend, been around a couple of newsrooms too.
I know how the game is played, and you got played.
Here’s some advice.
If you’re going to continue covering stories about Alaska, get your information from someone outside of the Bloggers Friends Network.